Sig Christenson is a veteran military reporter who has made nine trips to the war zone. He writes regularly for Hearst about service members, veterans and heroes, among other topics. He is also the co-founder and former president of Military Reporters and Editors, founded in 2002.

Lackland Scandal

08/17/2014

SAN ANTONIO — More than a year has passed since Tech. Sgt. Jaime Rodriguez got one of the longest prison sentences in the history of the Air Force's training command. Now, his case is being used as a training tool for recruits at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland.

At the start of a class at the recruiting school, Tech Sgt. Christopher Hilfer, an instructor, put photos of Rodriguez and Airman 1st Class Elizabeth Jacobson, a 21-year-old killed in Iraq, on a screen.

“To me she's a true hero, somebody I think everybody should look up to,” he said. “Does anybody know who the person on the left is?”

“Sgt. Rodriguez?” a student asked.

“You might even have heard about him a little bit,” Hilfer said before detailing the outcome of Rodriguez's trial, where he was sentenced to 27 years in prison for sexual abuse of recruits. “How would you feel if this person had been recruited by this person? It's not acceptable.”

06/01/2014

The head of the Air Force's training command said he wasn't surprised by critical comments that instructors at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland made last year about their leaders, working conditions and recruits under their watch.

Gen. Robin Rand said it was a rough time on the base when the survey of instructors was done last July. But he said “a lot of the angst” — caused by a manpower shortage that forced them to put in long work hours and give up vacation — was addressed.

He also said basic training is “on the right glide path” after a sex scandal that prompted a highly publicized command-directed investigation two years ago. He said a more recent survey showed morale is rising among trainers in Lackland's elite instructor corps.

07/28/2013

The Air Force has charged an enlistee with sexually abusing two people, one of them younger than 16, at a camp an hour northeast of Del Rio that hosted San Antonio high school students.

The Air Force said over the weekend that Airman 1st Class Nathan G. Wilson-Crow, a combat cameraman at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, exposed himself to a child younger than 16, who was identified as Victim 2, and had sexual contact with another camp participant, identified as Victim 1. Wilson-Crow was accused of touching a third person while in the presence of Victim 2, but no charge resulted from that.

07/27/2013

A jury Friday night found an Air Force basic training instructor not guilty of rape.

Tech. Sgt. Marc Gayden was charged with rape, forcible sodomy and trying to develop an illicit personal relationship with a woman while he was her instructor at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland nearly three years ago.

Earlier in the day, fellow trainers testified that Gayden was a trusted leader.

“That man is probably the epitome of what an instructor should be,” said Master Sgt. Greg Pendleton, a 19-year Air Force veteran.

Much of the questioning during the four-day trial centered on whether the woman, identified as Airman 1, could have been alone in a dorm on Dec. 24, 2010, the day of the alleged attack, and if Gayden missed physical training sessions. Testimony has conflicted on the issues.

07/25/2013

The star witness against an Air Force basic training instructor charged with raping her in a dormitory office said his misconduct began with a kiss she didn't see coming — and says she didn't want.

Taking the stand against Tech. Sgt. Marc Gayden for about three hours Thursday, the woman told a five-member jury the first incident occurred as she stood duty as a dorm guard.

“He came up to me and tried to hug me, and I turned my head,” said the woman, identified as Airman 1.

Gayden is charged with rape, forcible sodomy and trying to develop an illicit personal relationship with the woman while he was her basic training instructor at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. He could get life in prison.

As the morning unfolded, Airman 1 maintained her military bearing, never becoming flustered or emotional.

She maintained that Gayden raped her even after Houston defense attorney Guy Womack highlighted differences in three statements she gave Air Force investigators, the email she sent and an evidentiary hearing here in April.

A prosecutor, Capt. Mark Schwartz, this week said Airman 1 was on crutches nursing a bad ankle on Christmas Eve 2010 when she talked with Gayden about the injury. They were in his office a short walk from her bed.

As they talked, the government alleges, he tried to kiss her, then put a hand down her pants and pushed her into a chair, where he briefly forced her to perform oral sex.

When it was over, the recruit limped to bed and cried, leaving her crutches behind, she said. A few minutes later, she said, he stood over her.

“'No one's going to believe you,'” Airman 1 recalled him saying.

Womack calls her a liar and worked throughout the day to damage her credibility. He threw many punches as 10 witnesses took the stand, but landed few.

The star witness and accuser against an Air Force basic training instructor charged with rape said his misconduct began with a kiss she didn't see coming.

Tech. Sgt. Marc Gayden is charged with rape, forcible sodomy and trying to develop an illicit personal relationship with the woman while he was her basic training instructor at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. He faces life in prison if convicted.

Gayden is the 25th instructor to go on trial in a scandal that so far has seen 33 trainers fall under investigation for misconduct with 67 recruits and technical school students.

Prosecutors say Gayden raped the woman and tried to force her to perform oral sex.

The witness identified as Airman 1 took the stand for around three hours Thursday to testify against Gayden. She said she was standing duty as a dorm guard on the night of the incident, when Gayden left an office inside her living quarters.

“He came up to me and tried to hug me, and I turned my head,” she said.

Houston defense attorney Guy Womack spent much of the morning trying to debunk her testimony.

The case hinges on her believability. She is the sole witness against Gayden, an 11-year Air Force veteran the defense says was highly regarded.

As the morning unfolded, she maintained her military bearing, never becoming emotional as some victims have over the last 15 months.

07/24/2013

An Air Force basic training instructor on trial for raping a recruit won't be allowed to bring witnesses to the stand who would testify that the chief accuser in the case lied about him.

Houston attorney Guy Womack wanted the judge, Lt. Col. Grant Kratz, to let him call several former recruits to testify the woman made up claims that Tech. Sgt. Marc Gayden showed favors to them during basic training.

Prosecutors argued that the allegation was irrelevant because Gayden faces life in prison for rape and forcible sodomy, and was not charged with misconduct associated with favoritism. Womack, however, said the testimony was a crucial cog in the defense's strategy.

“Our defense is she lied, period,” he told the judge Wednesday.

An 11-year Air Force veteran, Gayden is the 25th basic training instructor to be tried in a sex scandal at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland that is the worst in the service's history. So far, 33 instructors have been investigated for misconduct with 67 recruits and technical school students.

Jury selection was to begin this morning for Gayden, who has asked that a panel of officers and NCOs hear his case. He took the stand Tuesday as Womack, who defended Abu Ghraib torturer Cpl. Charles Graner, sought to admit an email into evidence.

07/23/2013

A San Antonio NCO charged with raping a recruit in basic training first learned he might be in trouble when the ex-trainee sent him an email.

Tech. Sgt. Marc Gayden said Monday he opened the message Oct. 18, 2012 after arriving at work. A woman identified as Airman 1 told Gayden that she had read a newspaper story about the sex scandal at Joint Base San Antonio.

“It made me think of what you did to me in your office,” she wrote him. “I'm thinking of reporting it.”

Stunned, Gayden said his heart raced and he breathed heavily while pondering the message, sent to him as part of a probe that had been launched by the Air Force's Office of Special Investigations.

Gayden, an 11-year Air Force veteran, later was charged with forcible rape, forcible sodomy and trying to develop a personal relationship with a recruit. The 25th basic training instructor to be tried in the Lackland scandal, he could get life in prison if convicted this week.

Two-dozen airmen have gone to trial since April 2012. One of the latest was Senior Airman Andrew Lira, a seven-year veteran who was given six months in jail, 30 days' hard labor, $1,200 in forfeitures and reduction to the lowest rank for seeking sex with eight enlistees.

07/02/2013

Gen. Edward Rice Jr., who led the Air Force's response to its worst-ever worst sexual
misconduct scandal, will soon retire as head of the San Antonio-based Air Education and Training Command.

Rice, an Albuquerque, N.M., native who spent part of his childhood on
the South Side, will close out a career that ran 35 years. He'll be
replaced by Lt. Gen. Robin Rand, now commander of the 12th Air Force at
Davis-Monthan AFB.

“It will be several months before I actually retire,” Rice, 57, said
in a brief statement. “I look forward to continuing to serve the airmen
of AETC and the American people during this period of challenge and
opportunity.”

The scandal that so far has engulfed 33 basic training instructors at
Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland for alleged misconduct with 67 recruits
and technical school students fell on Rice's desk two years ago. Just
last week, two instructors were sent to prison for having sex with
trainees.

Air Force chief of staff Gen. Mark Welsh III credited Rice with acting to uncover the depth of the scandal, while former Air Force Secretary F. Whitten Peters said Rice would have been replaced sooner if he had been blamed.

“He did what he could do, which is prosecute the people involved,
replace the leadership, replace the (instructor) cadre that needed
replacing,” said Peters, the Air Force's top civilian under President Bill Cllinton.

Rice asked Maj. Gen. Margaret Woodward, to investigate basic and technical training. A report they released at the Pentagon last November called for sweeping changes in basic and technical school training.

So far, 34 of 45 recommendations have been completed, Lt. Col. Richard Johnson,
an AETC spokesman, said Sunday. Instructor manpower is on the rise, and
six officers will be added to every squadron by August.

“The reason we're finding all these cases is that when Gen. Ed Rice
first learned about this thing, and I think in a very positive and
aggressive way took charge of the investigation, he committed to looking
long-term at every case that was unveiled in any way, shape or form
going back at least 10 years,” Welsh said.

Lackland triggered widespread media coverage of sexual assaults in
the services, a congressional investigation and calls for a makeover in
the military justice system. Other incidents put a spotlight on the
issue, including the arrest of a sexual assault prevention officer
accused of groping a woman in Virginia.

A military brat, Rice lived on the now-defunct Brooks AFB from 1962-64 and led the Air Force Recruiting Service
from 2002-04. He returned to head up AETC, which has 12 bases and
trains 293,000 students a year. It is the largest Air Force command.

While many shied away from speaking about the scandal, he talked
about it on several occasions. Asked about the impact of a series of
highly publicized trials, Rice said he didn't fear that they would
tarnish the Air Force's image.

06/28/2013

The two-year sentence handed to Senior Airman Christopher Oliver on
Wednesday marks what I believe is the 22nd completed trial in the
ongoing scandal among basic training instructors at Joint Base San
Antonio-Lackland.

It’s a good place to pick up the interview I did last week with the
Air Force chief of staff, Gen. Mark Welsh III. He talks about core
values – the ideals that all airmen are supposed to live by but, in the
case of as many as 33 Lackland military training instructors, failed to
do.

Every MTI and recruit sees the values in signs posted on the base.
They are “integrity,” “service before self” and “excellence in all we
do,” and were crafted by another Air Force chief, the now-retired Gen.
Ronald Fogleman.

In his “Little Blue Book,” a manual on core values he ordered to be
given to young airmen, Fogleman defined integrity as “the inner voice;
the voice of self-control; the basis for the trust imperative in today’s
military.”

“The Air Force talks about this a lot,” Welsh said in the interview.
“This is what our core values are all about. The idea of integrity,
service and excellence and with respect kind of woven into all three of
those is, again, it’s foundational to what we want to be as a service.

“We talk about it all the time. What we’re doing right now is looking
at – is there a different way as people come into the Air Force to
ensure that the people we bring on, whether they’re officers or NCOs or
civilians, understand very clearly the expectation and standards of
behavior – both self-behavior and behavior toward others – that live in
our service. And then make sure they understand the reasons behind those
expectations and why they’re so important to accomplishing our mission,
which is the bottom line for us.

“But we know if we don’t take great care, better care constantly of
our people, that we won’t be as good at getting that mission done as we
need to be, and the mission is to fight and win our nation’s wars. It’s a
pretty significant mission, and we’ve got to be good at this, which
means we have to have the best people possible, which means we have to
take better care of them than anyone else does, in my opinion.”